


Toughening Up

by cuddlesome



Category: The LEGO Movie (2014), The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Depression, Gen, Introspection, Loneliness, Spoilers, Suicidal Thoughts, Tragedy/Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 00:16:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17735387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlesome/pseuds/cuddlesome
Summary: Emmet (soon-to-be Rex) is in heck.





	Toughening Up

**Author's Note:**

> On the one hand, I know that Rex is supposed to represent toxic ideas about masculinity and maturity. On the other hand, his backstory reminds me so much of [Jessie's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElhbTsKsros) and that always made me cry as a kid AND as an adult. So. Yeah, I stan Mr. Dangervest.

This planet is absolutely miserable. It’s no wonder only monstery crawly things and dust live here.

Well. And Emmet. But he wouldn’t be if he had any choice in the matter.

He can’t even open his mouth to greet anything. If he could at least do that he might be able to acquaint himself with the dismal new world the same way that he did with Apocalypseburg. Even that rundown, constantly-threatened-by-aliens city seems fun at this point.

Emmet thinks of his house that he’d customized so carefully with himself and Unikitty and Planty and Lucy in mind. Especially Lucy. In his more hopeful moments (there are a lot of those at the beginning) he thinks about getting the pieces of his ship back together so he can rebuild it from the ground up.

But that would require moving, wouldn't it? Emmet can only seem to occasionally twitch a limb and increase the deepness of his frown. If he tried harder, would he be able to throw himself to safety? Probably not. He keeps trying anyway.

Is no one coming to help him?

Where is Lucy? She should have come and saved him by now. She’s so smart, she has to have figured out that he got lost on his way to her. Any second now she’ll come get him. He’ll be able to hug her and chase away all of the horrible sensations that have haunted him here. She’ll chastise him for being so reckless, definitely, but she’ll hug him back and smooth his hair and everything will be awesome again.

His heart breaks when he sees her having a great time with everyone else in the Systar System.

No one is coming to help him.

He stops being Emmet around what he estimates to be the second year alone. It just doesn’t feel right to refer to the embittered husk of himself as Emmet Brickowski anymore. He doesn’t have any alternatives, though, so for now he’s just. A thing. A discarded piece of trash with very little soul left that’s starting to fit in with the monsters.

He stops trying to escape. This must be where he belongs, Special or no Special.

Sometimes he can’t stand to look at his friends through the tiny slat that shows him the rest of the system. They seem to be doing great. He knows he should be happy for them. He’s not. The old Emmet might have been, but the thing he is now is intensely jealous. Even angry. Worst of all, he’s sad.

He feels these emotions in every piece of his tiny plastic body, bubbling hot and threatening to melt him from the inside out. It might be better to just stop existing than to endure these feelings all alone.

When he can manage to turn his head away, Not-Emmet doesn’t pay attention to his friends’ sparkle-covered adventures. He prefers to just stare up at the blankness above him and listen to the occasional rumblings of the planet. The white space shakes and sputters sometimes and he entertains thoughts of it crushing him. It never does.

Despite his attempts to distract himself from them, he thinks of his friends anyway. More specifically, what they had said about him. Too soft, too happy, too nice. They don’t need to worry about any of that anymore.

His heart used to be full of things that made him happy, like his friends and Lucy, his bestest best friend, and double-decker couches and coffee and toast and sometimes even Jeff on especially good days. For a long time he is just empty instead. Now those holes are starting to be filled up piece by piece of things that will make him stronger.

What sorts of things are tough? He doesn’t have anyone to ask and he hadn’t paid much attention to that sort of stuff before being stranded here. He has to wrack his brain for a while.

After some deliberation, his list of cool, strong things reads as follows:

1\. Muscles.

2\. Guns.

3\. Dinosaurs.

4\. Hitting stuff really, really hard.

5\. Grown-ups.

And…

6\. Being all alone.

Lone wolves are supposed to be really resilient, right? He doesn’t feel that way, but he reassures himself that this experience is a blessing in disguise. It’s making him stronger.

For the first time in years, he feels his mouth curl into a smile. No, it’s more like a smirk. It stretches wider at the thought. Smug, cocksure smirks are definitely tougher than genuine smiles.

He starts thinking about what to call himself again after so long nameless. Not Emmet, that still doesn’t fit.

The fact that dinosaurs made it on his list helps him out. He only knows the popular ones that he had seen on TV back in Bricksburg when “Where Are My Pants?” was showing a few too many reruns and he changed it to one of the handful of other channels Lord Business allowed. It’s good enough.

“Tyrannosaurus” is really long and hard to say but “Rex” is just perfect. Short, to the point, regal.

The last name will come later when he gets his new threads. For now, Rex is more than enough.

Rex smirks until his face hurts as he starts to formulate his plan. It’s convoluted and selfish and mean, so mean, but he’s not Emmet. He doesn’t care anymore. After all, no one cared about him anymore. Not Unikitty, not Benny, not Batman, not Metal Beard…

Not Lucy.

His smirk turns back into a defeated frown so easily.

Everything hurts when Rex thinks of her, right down to stinging in his little dot eyes. Before, he might have tried to shove those feelings away. Now he embraces them.

That pain gives Rex the energy to finally start to start to shift. His movements are jerky and stiff and kick up years’ worth of dust. For days he can only thrash in place. He is determined to stand.

He’s going to show everyone just how strong he’s gotten.


End file.
